Jose Saldaña from Release Aging People in Prison discusses a wildcat strike by New York prison guards who feel unsafe due to limits on solitary confinement. This unrest coincides with murder charges against six guards involved in the brutal death of prisoner Robert Brooks, highlighting systemic issues in prison treatment. Anthropologist Orisanmi Burton adds context, suggesting prisons function as tools of control and warfare. Both speakers point out the striking’s potential aim to divert attention from growing public awareness of brutality within the prison system, especially as political organizing behind bars influences these conditions since the 1960s.
"The people who are living in a dangerous environment are the incarcerated men and women," says Saldaña, highlighting the dangerous conditions prisoners face that overshadow guards' concerns.
"This illegal strike is to erase that consciousness that's building," says Saldaña, connecting the strike to wider public awareness of brutality and systemic issues in the prison system.
"Prisons in the United States are best understood as institutions of low-intensity warfare that masquerade as apolitical instruments of crime control," states Burton, framing prison dynamics within a historical context of resistance.
The timing of the strike is curious, starting the same week charges were filed against guards involved in the brutal beating of Robert Brooks, forcing a confrontation with systemic violence in prisons.
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